sanctuary

Monday, November 21, 2016

I thought a colleague of
mine was putting me on recently when he told me that the Trump family
had been peddling products and advertising their family businesses
on a dot gov web site. Ivanka herself was marketing her $10,000
bracelet. I discovered it was true. The site came down after a few
days. I guess someone realized it was not a subtle way to begin the
four year scam.

This is a family of rich
grifters … and that's why they're liked by so many Americans. It
doesn't matter if the Donald is a billionaire (thanks to daddy) along
with numerous conflicts of interest, deadbeat morality and totally
unqualified to be town dog catcher let alone the President of the
United States.

America he's ours—certainly
for a large percentage of white people--and we want to believe he's
revenge on the “ruling class,” which ruling class of course
depends on your point of view. Donald is going to make America “great
again.” I may be wrong but did anyone among our corporate
info-entertainers over this past dismal year ask him “when”
America was great? But hell, who cares. Right?

The rational worldview

People I know have told me I
need to be patient. After all, Trump did win the presidency fair and
square. Let's wait and see what he does before we react. We need to
bring the country together in order to move forward. The opposition
needs to accept this fact. Unless you have demonstrable proof that
the election was “stolen” get it line and support America. Forget
the blather about Hillary having more of the popular vote than Trump;
Mr. Trump clearly won within the current system.

I refuse to participate in
this process of organized amnesia, to cooperate in normalizing a man
who stands for everything America should not.

(Leonard Pitts Jr.,
journalist)

The Lord of Mordor

I've been following a
particular social media site very much in opposition to Donald Trump.
I've read with interest a lengthy thread dealing with trolls,
insulting remarks and how best to handle individuals who do this.

What struck me while reading
many of the comments was the naivete of so many, well meaning and
committed individuals who are against Trump. Nasty individuals,
however, mocking liberals is the least of our worries. Steve Bannon,
the Donald's Rasputin in the new White House, has little interest in
what you think about damn near anything. It will likely get so much
worse and we have no time for a lengthy learning curve or being
shocked or upset by troglodytes.

Less we forget, the Cult
controls Congress. The list is long. Characters like Paul Ryan think
their libertarian college boy dream can soon become a reality. You
gonna stop it? In addition to the ACA they're coming after Medicare,
Medicaid, Social Security, the environment, which includes national
parks and wildlife. Women your place is in the kitchen barefoot and
pregnant. Hell, some 53% of white women voted for Donald. What
happened to the last forty years or so? Trickle down economics is
back with a vengeance. Oh yes, tax cuts for the parasite class is the
wave of the future. After all, they're clearly your betters and
struggle is good for you. Serfdom has some good aspects because
you'll know what to do day after day after day. You just do what
you're told. First amendment, well, we may have to cut back a bit in
order to make America great. Now the “other” people, you know who
you are. You've got to understand who runs this country, and realize
who is on top of the dung heap, sort of like the natural order of
things. Best of all we're going to have guns and more guns
everywhere—hospitals, schools, churches and conveniently you'll be
able to buy them in a Quick Trip or maybe a 7Eleven, hell, Hobby
Lobby possibly, who knows and no waiting time. An educated citizenry?
Well, there is too much thinking going on in this country. A well run
country can't really have educated citizens. And there is so much
more. I bet Russia could be our closest ally because we'll have so
much in common. Imagine, we could give a select group of angry white
people brown and black shirts and they could earn merit badges and
move up in the ranks. I know, it's an old idea, but we could reduce
unemployment to zero and have a lot of torchlight parades and be
proud Americans again. Be happy, don't worry citizens, you're not in
a dream....

I'm going to a restaurant
tonight. It's owned by Muslims. Last week white nationalist Orcs
smashed some windows and wrote graffiti on the walls. This
approachingKristallnacht we better not ignore or worry that we might
upset the Cult. We can apologize profusely and promise to work
together if Trump and company do not turn out to be a collection of
ignorant, undemocratic thugs that want to turn the clock back to some
mythical and exclusive white boy paradise.

This is not going to be a
gentle struggle or a weekend beating of drums, chants and inspiring
folk music. The thread for how we got here goes back to the very
beginning of this country founded on slavery, racism, genocide,
predatory capitalism, Social Darwinism, total disrespect for the
natural world and “I got mine.” Now the monsters have been
unleashed. Be grateful for what you have and realize and understand
what and why you have it and be clear that you're not alone or
powerless. Make this Thanksgiving a time to commit to a much better
country.

And suddenly the mirror
went altogether dark, as dark as if a hole had opened in the world of
sight, and Frodo looked into emptiness....

(Frodo seeing Sauron, in
the Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien)

Monday, November 14, 2016

Democracy is beautiful in
theory, in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that
some day.

(Benito Mussolini, leader
of National Fascist Party, 1922-1943)

I love the old days—you
know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place
like this? They'd be carried out on a stretcher folks … I'd like to
punch him in the face.

(Donald Trump, discussing
a protester this past February being dragged out of a Trump rally)

The 60's redux

I remember in graduate
school writing a paper on the late Mario Savio, the leader of the
Berkeley Free Speech Movement in 1964. My professor, an Englishman
who had fought the Nazis at Dunkirk, thought the paper was “well
written” but its premise naive. It was certainly naive, in the
sense that soaring rhetoric, lofty idealism and mere protests would
quickly cause the “establishment”-any establishment—to crumble
before our eyes. Of course, positive change did eventually occur in a
great many areas, but over time through a lot of hard work, a lot of
creative thinking, a lot of sacrifice ... and a lot of pain.

The victor will never be
asked if he told the truth.

(Adolf Hitler)

What it is for the moment

It was by definition
Populism, a mixed picture in American history. (See The globalboneyard.) Whether or not Donald Trump has the slightest idea what
Populism is, he talked about change, creating jobs and “throwing
out the rascals.” These slogans have worked in America for over 200
years.

According to the polls (for
all that means), the voters had pretty much made up their minds by
September and Trump had a very, very good chance of becoming
president, although Clinton and the Democratic strategists, in
hindsight, remained largely clueless, in itself a reason to gut the
Democratic party or turn it inside out.

At the moment the Democrats
control virtually nothing. We know what has happened at the national
level but how many of us know that the majority of state legislatures
and governorships are controlled by the Cult. We are knee deep in the
effluent—meaning “crap.” It matters a great deal ultimately
what we end up doing, from the town council on up to the presidency.
What we do have are many of the cities and that matters a great deal,
an article unto itself.

You got 9 weeks

For the time being we have
to take the Donald mostly at his word. No, I don't think all the
nonsense that Trump uttered during the campaign is going to get
implemented and become law, but in the short-term America is going to
become coarser, uglier, less democratic and increasingly unpleasant
for perhaps a majority of Americans.

For many Americans, their
real education is about to begin. Presidents have significant power
in issuing Executive Orders, requiring no advice and consent of
Congress. As well, they have the power to undo Executive Orders
implemented by their predecessor, in this case President Obama. But
there is so much more being talked about already in the
Cult-controlled Congress.

Make no mistake; they are
going for everything as fast as possible. The unspoken belief is that the Cult really can take us back to the “good old days.” Best be
aware and best be prepared for what is to come. Wisdom, intelligence,
discipline and awareness will, in a few weeks, be worth all the money
in the U.S. Treasury. Pull up your bootstraps America and get ready
to listen to your “betters.”

We have basically nine weeks
to create the beginning of an organization, at the national level as
well as at the state and local level. A good place to start is
learning how government works at all levels and how ideas become
laws. We could begin by talking to those politicians that actually
make the laws. It is much more than anger and righteous indignation
that will bring about the changes we want.

The good news is that the
wailing and gnashing of teeth appears to be short lived; therefore,
we can get on with the business at hand. Some 59 million people voted
for Trump. We have millions of potential customers if we learn how to
close the deal. How much incentive do you need?Economic America: A delusion wrapped in an illusion

Sunday, November 06, 2016

Wednesday, November 02, 2016

While stitching a cut on the hand of a 75 year old farmer, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Donald Trump...and his role as the Republican Nominee for President. The old farmer said, " Well, as I see it, Donald Trump is like a 'Post Tortoise'.'' Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post tortoise' was. The old farmer said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's a post tortoise." The old farmer saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, he's elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him up there to begin with."

Monday, October 24, 2016

Last week I attended a
seminar on urban heat islands, the speaker being a staff scientist
with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Mitigation strategies
to lower temperatures in urban regions will become increasingly
important as half the world's population now lives in cities of one
size or another and climate change is raising global temperatures.
This is what we call facts. We can verify these facts, anyone can for
that matter.

Can't catch my breath

Even though 2016 is not
unique, it does seem that we have a higher collection of world
leaders at the present time that run the gamut from sociopath, to
gangster to merely authoritarian. Democratic values are not winning
the popularity contest at the moment.

You would have to be half
mad to dream me up.

(Mad Hatter, Alice in
Wonderland)

In the United States Donald
Trump, the profoundly ignorant, deeply narcissistic and repulsive
man-child, for the past year or so, has overwhelmed our political and
cultural lives, which in and of itself says something about our
present (ideally short-lived) dysfunction.

In a sort of “best of all
possible worlds,” the Donald will vanish into the trash can of
history along with the White People's Cult, formerly known as the
Republican party. But you would have to be “half mad” to believe
it's going to be that easy.

Now, to resume our
discussion on urban heat islands.... but first make sure you vote and
overwhelm ignorance.

Monday, October 17, 2016

The current clown scare is
a result of two rising forces in the U.S: social media, and a fear of
otherness, whether it arrives in a white Mercedes or a refugee boat.

(Robert Bartholomew,
sociologist, Botany College, New Zealand)

I was about to write
something on capitalism and “geocide” but a colleague emailed me
an interesting article and survey on climate change, not about the
science of global warming but about how we “think” about it—or
not. Then I came across a video, both disturbing and depressing, but
tied indirectly to climate change.

The political spectacle

Reporters for the NYT
followed Donald Trump for a year at his various presidential rallies
throughout the United States. While this video is about the 2016
election, it could be a rally of a particular kind you might attend
in far to many countries today. In fact, it conjures up scenes from
the early 1930s in Europe.

Making America Really,
Really Not So Great Again

Climate and beliefs

The survey shows that (1)
overall opinions about climate are split along (not surprisingly to
many) partisan lines and have hardly changed at all, (2) scientific
knowledge does not change the opinions of climate deniers, (3) the
increase of scientific “literacy” appears to change the views of
Democrats but not Republicans, (4) climate beliefs are more about
“tribal” beliefs, (5) most people have no organized ideology and
firm opinion on issues, (6) elite views are the most important
operator on public opinion, (7) tribal attachment is the most
important influence not issue attachment and (8) BUT, regardless of
where one falls on the political spectrum, everyone likes renewable
energy such as wind and solar. Go to Climate Survey to read the details.

Nature, nurture and
genopolitics

Two to three years ago the
word Genopolitics appeared with increasing frequency. Did genes
influence political behavior? Could genetics tell us whether or not
we would be on the Left or Right politically? Would it be easier to
gauge if we were inclined to be Liberal or Conservative?

There was some interesting
scientific research going on. Neuroscience had made some remarkable
breakthrough in the last ten years or so and several tantalizing
ideas spread beyond brain research. Certainly some political
scientists thought they could be nearing the point where predictable
patterns of behavior might be understood in light of what
neuro-science had uncovered.

We know a good deal, for
example, about how hormones and neurotransmitters in our bodies
influence behavior. The levels of serotonin in our system might
affect our self confidence and sense of worth and intensity of
aggression. Some researchers believe that the release of oxytocin,
the “cuddle hormone,” might have something to do with increases
in generosity and trust.

The problem is that human
behavior is complicated and not easy to describe on a flow chart.
Some people have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism but never
become alcoholics because of environmental factors. A psychiatrist
and well respected authority on serial killers, in the course of his
research, discovered he himself had the genetic makeup of a sociopath
but it was the environmental factor (home life, family) that
triggered a full blown monster. At some point there is a good chance
we will get beyond merely uncovering “interesting” connections in
human behavior and be able to identify cause and effect and replicate
it over and over again.

Nevertheless, understanding
human behavior, it seems to me, cannot be merely left to brain
researchers and various policy wonks but all of us … if we want to
succeed. If as this particular climate survey indicates, the one
thing we all seem to agree upon is the value of renewable energy.
Then what ought we to be doing, if fifty percent of us believe
climate change is an existential threat to all of us? Who is
thwarting the effort?

While Clinton's emails and
Trumps' behavior may be the current American distraction (along with
scary clowns), on November 9, 2016, we will be back to dealing with
human behavior, which needs some serious hormonal alteration and
rewiring.

Monday, October 10, 2016

The most recent issue of
Nature Conservancy magazine is devoted to climate change in the U.S.
One of the articles discusses the varied strategies taking place
across the United States, which often reflects the makeup of the
state be it politically, economically, socially and so forth. For
example, in Iowa more than one-quarter of greenhouse gas emissions
comes from agriculture. The focus here is educating farmers on soil
management and fertilizer reduction and working closely with the
state's “decision makers.”

In New York state the
emphasis is on overhauling the electrical grid system, decentralizing
power generation and encouraging more solar and wind energy. In
Louisiana reforestation is seen as an important goal, while in
Libertarian-inclined New Hampshire energy independence,
self-sufficiency and clean energy is attractive across the political
spectrum.

The point of all these
examples is that there are many different KNOWN strategies to
confront climate change, the overriding goal being to keep global
temperatures under 2 degrees Celsius. Something like one-third of
greenhouse gas emission reductions can be accomplished by the
protection and restoration of nature. Ultimately, the strategy for
global success is both mitigation and adaptation to climate change
and a lot of creative thinking.

What ought not to be
considered in the U.S. and across the globe is the increase of fossil
fuel production, coal in particular. In the recent vice-presidential
“debate,” nominee Mike Pence spoke about the unemployed coal
miners and that his party would restore coal production and
presumably put the miners back to work.

It's almost irrelevant
whether it is ignorance or merely electioneering blather, but coal
production needs to vanish, much, much sooner than later. Mountain
top restoration of coal mines, among other things, is a better
acknowledgment of 21st century reality.

What coal miners and others
need is the unvarnished truth about economic change, along with
programs that actually provide serious retraining, financial support
and a first world education system for their children. Once again,
the electorate has considerable responsibility in making this happen,
and not merely complaining about what is not happening. Yes, the
automobile put the buggy whip manufacturers out of business.

Cigarettes don't cause
cancer

A lot of folks remember the
iconic photograph of cigarette executives in 1994 raising their hands
before a Congressional committee promising to tell the truth about
their product. Well, that “truth” proved elusive back then, but
in the minds of many people the cigarette industry is nothing more
than a criminal enterprise, which is apparently still thriving today
in many third world countries.

Yes I too watched the
presidential “debate” last night. Clearly Donald Trump and
depressingly a large number of his supporters prefer the dankness of
the sewer rather than fresh air and blue skies. Hillary Clinton
managed to utter the wordsClimate Change at the very end of the
evening when an audience member asked a question about energy. While
my heart is well to the left of Clinton my head says more than ever
she deserves my support. That's where the organizing can take place,
in a world where climate change must take center stage.

Monday, October 03, 2016

(Sir Robert Watson, former
chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)

The Arctic is a principal,
global driver of the climate system and is undergoing an
unprecedented rate of change with consequences far beyond its
boundaries.

(David Grimes, President
of World Meteorological Organization)

So the American voter wants
change?

Possibly one of the world's
largest ice avalanches, which contained some 100 million cubic meters
of ice and rock, occurred in western Tibet this past July.
Glaciologists are not yet certain why an entire “glacier tongue”
would collapse so quickly and violently. The glaciers of Central and
South Asia, including Tibet, have the largest reserves of glacier ice
outside of Antarctica, Greenland and Canada.

As mentioned previously, an
international climate goal is to keep temperature rise under 2
degrees Celsius. The current reality is, however, that the Arctic,
which makes up 4 percent of the earth's surface has already risen
some 4 degrees Celsius. Climate scientists believe
that if we don't take far more serious measures, temperatures will
certainly rise to 1.5 degrees C by 2030 and quite conceivably 2
degrees C by 2050.

Yes, stuff could happen—in
our lifetime. Permafrost could melt in the tundra (where it used to
be cold all the time) releasing more carbon dioxide—and
methane—making what we call feedback loops an unpleasant reality.
Ocean currents could change and weather patterns might begin to vary
a lot, with extreme weather events becoming the new reality.

This time you might want to
stop living in flood plains and do not expect the government to bail
you out citizen. Massive die offs of plant and animal life could
occur, along with water wars, forced migration of millions of people across the globe,
famines and no more exotic vacations for the privileged and the
wealthy … get the idea?

My fellow Americans,
ignorance is not bliss, right here in “River City”

Watching the recent
presidential debate, I was surprised by the amount of revulsion I
felt toward Donald Trump, in my opinion the most unqualified
presidential candidate in modern history, but I do not consider him
merely an ignorant, narcissistic carnival barker. History offers far
too many examples of seeming buffoons and charlatans seducing the
citizenry, taking power and then wreaking havoc.

We are being told by
assorted pundits that the demographic group designated “millennials,”
some 75 million souls, ages 18 to 34 dislike or are uneasy about
voting for Hillary Clinton and she could lose the election if she
does not get their support.

If you are a 34 year old
millennial right now, in 2050 you will be 68 years old and some of
you will presumably have children and grandchildren. If you are 25
years old you will be only 59 in 2050. Donald, Hillary and a great
many of us will be long gone 34 years from now.

I'm doing my best to
definitely forget about Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, the nominees for
the Green Party and the Libertarian Party. It is a wasted protest
vote. Jill Stein appears to live in a world of illusion and seems to
have little understanding of political reality, how the political
system actually works and how people actually make decisions.

Then there is Gary Johnson,
a seemingly nice guy who needs to brush up on world events before
running for the presidency of the United States. But perhaps even
more important in a diverse, continental sized country with more than
300 million people, libertarian, free market claptrap is the last
thing we need in a world with climate change, demographic increases,
global trade, nuclear weapons and a host of grown up issues requiring
collective action.

Wishing is hardly enough

My personal wish list
includes such things as universal health care, the repeal of
Citizen's United, national gun legislation that reflects a 21st
century world, criminal justice reform, reducing livestock farming (a global warming
disaster), free college education, a genuine progressive income tax,
intelligent cuts in the bloated defense budget, increasing funding
for our national parks (one of the greatest public policy successes
in our history), a large scale infrastructure program and above all,
an actual commitment to fighting climate change.

I'm going to vote for
Hillary Clinton without reservation, not because she ignites my
passion or guarantees my wish list, but because she is capable of the
“change” so many Americans claim that they want.Of course the
change comes when we who profess the need for that change actually
organize, educate and vote at all levels all the time over the long
term.

Finally, there is the
definition of what “change” means. I have a pretty good idea of
what Donald Trump's most passionate supporters mean by change.

Monday, September 26, 2016

So far we simply have not
been prepared to accept the revolutionary implications of our own
findings, and even when we do we are reluctant to voice such thoughts
openly … many are ultimately choosing to censor their own
research.

One number in particular
always stands out for me. That number is 0.00004. It represents the
time we humans have existed on our planet compared to Earth's total
age. Earth is 4.543 billion years old.

Modern humans have been
around for approximately 200,000 years. Perhaps 6 or 7 million years
ago our distant ancestors, possibly in what is present day Chad, and
the chimpanzee separated from our common ancestor Sahelanthropus
Tchandensis (see “Remembering uncle sah,” May 7,2013).

Only 92 elements make up ALL
of life on this planet. We humans today are quite likely breathing
the same air that the dinosaurs breathed 100 million years ago.
Scientists believe, in a general sense, that any given species of
plant and animal, vertebrate or invertebrate on average lasts around
10 million years. We Homo sapiens (sapiens) are animal vertebrates.
How long do you think humankind will manage to hang on? How much
misery and destruction to all life are we capable of leaving in our
wake?

Brief Explanation of
Weather and Climate

The numbers but which ones

The number of importance at
the moment for government policy makers and climate scientist is 2
degrees Celsius.

While it may be of more
significance politically than scientifically, it is a serious marker
that the international community has set as a temperature standard in
an attempt to avoid a global warming disaster, which in the worst
case scenario could conceivably result in human extinction, possibly
sooner than what was previously imagined. The objective is to keep
global warming increases under 2 degrees Celsius.(A temperature of 2
degrees Celsius is 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Several years ago the number
400 ppm was well known to policy makers and climate scientists. It
represented parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.The objective was to keep CO2 emissions in the atmosphere under 400
ppm.

The last monitoring station
that crossed the threshold occurred in the Antarctic on May 23 of
this year. What happens in Beijing, New York or Paris doesn't stay
there. This is the first time in 4 million years that carbon
emissions have risen above 400 ppm and remained there.

Since the beginning of the
Neolithic era, which began some 10,000 years ago global temperatures
fluctuated only about 1 degree Celsius. This is the period when human
civilization got underway, beginning with human settlements,
agriculture and what we call culture. We are now moving into the
unknown. Since the 1800s we have warmed 1 degree Celsius.

All the truth and only the
truth so help me....

Kevin Anderson, a respected
climate scientist, believes many scientists are indulging in a form
of self-censorship; in other words, they are producing reports that
are “politically” acceptable, because the reality may be far
worse than government policy makers, corporations and the public want
to hear at the present time.

The first video clip is a
short interview with Anderson at the climate talks in Paris in
December 2015 and the second video is a lecture that Anderson gave in
September 2015. It is very much about the numbers and the possible
consequences.

Monday, September 19, 2016

I live in Kansas City,
Missouri at the present time, an increasingly vibrant and diverse
medium-sized city in the middle of the United States. Unfortunately,
my fair city is in Missouri, a state whose heart seems to reside in
the Old Confederacy and the OK Corral rather than the 21st
century.

Missouri brings to mind the
line from Franz Kafka's novel The Trial published in 1925: “It's
only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of
themselves.”

The Missouri state
legislature, overriding the governor's veto, has recently approved a
bill, which expands our “concealed carry” law. Now, no gun permit
is required, no criminal background check needed and no firearms
training deemed necessary. We're just all lusty, red-blooded yeomen,
you know, like Thomas Jefferson praised in the 18th
century.

Of course Missouri is as
well a major contributor to the expanding dead zone in the Gulf of
Mexico, because of unregulated farming pollution runoff in the
Mississippi river. Welcome to Missouri. Give us your tired and your
deplorables.

Speaking of those
“deplorables,” Hillary Clinton supposedly made a political
mistake when she spoke of the Trump's supporters. Okay, 50% might be
high. Let's say it's only 45 percent that are kind of deplorable,
even though some polls have claimed that something like 60 percent of
the White People's Cult believe that President Obama is a Muslim or
not born in the U.S. or the founder of Isis—well whatever. Time to
buy my gun(s) and protect my castle.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

The twenty-first century
is not characterized by the search for new-ness, but by the
proliferations of nostalgias.

(Svetlana Boym, late
Russian-American philologist)

In the charged atmosphere
of the populist insurgency, spectacle lynchings sent a message: Stay
out of any politics that would divide whites and weaken white
supremacy.

(Age of Betrayal
1865-1890, by Jack Beatty)

Why has it seemed so
improbable to so many people that Donald Trump, the repulsive,
narcissistic buffoon, could very well become the next president of
the United States? Trump might well be the inevitable outcome—the
poster child--of a country desperate to fail.

It's called American history

No, it's not new at all,
regardless of whether or not assorted politicians and
info-entertainers on television today purport to be presenting some
fresh insight to an oftentimes uninformed electorate. The election
year 2016 in the United States is depressingly familiar. We can,
however, still make an attempt not to—once again—do the same
stupid.

The Populist movement of the
1880s and 1890s had many themes familiar to us today, including the
demands for economic fairness, equality and the end of political
corruption. The movement exploded across the mid-west and the south
in the 1880s brought on, as Supreme Court Justice John Marshall
Harlan recalled, by a “deep feeling of unrest.”

Small farmers and the
relatively poor were especially hard hit by economic forces they had
little control over and by decisions made in New York and Washington
that more often than not had virtually nothing to do with the needs
of the American people as a whole.

But by fearlessness,
organizing and an education campaign, which started out in a remote
part of Texas, the Populist movement became arguably the greatest
mass movement in American history. By 1891 they were a powerful
political force, quite capable of challenging the oligarchy, the
status quo and possibly capturing the White House. By 1900, however,
the Populist movement was virtually finished.

White racism, the sickness
that was built into the founding of the United States, was certainly
a major reason for the eventual collapse of the Populist movement.
White Southerners especially were ultimately incapable of getting
beyond their, uh, “cultural” heritage. The year 1892, when the
Populist movement was at its pinnacle, was also the worst year for
lynchings since 1868.

Once again white people,
especially the rural poor and the powerless in the south, responded
to the various “dog whistles,” employed so skillfully by the
likes of the robber baron Jay Gould in New York or by some wealthy,
politically connected plantation owner in Dixie.

The W.P.C., aka the white
people's cult aka formerly known as the Republican party

The comedian Samantha Bee
once referred to the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as a
“chinless dildo.” While McConnell can easily claim the mantel of
mediocrity, he reflects reasonably well the cult, of which he is a
leading member, and which the Donald, for the time being, is also an
“honored” member.

The Karl Marx coloring book

In fairness to Karl Marx,
Susan Sarandon and many of my Progressive friends, the times they are
most certainly changing. WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! Er, which
workers might that be? There are the self-employed. Not all of them
are rich lawyers and doctors that have set up their single-person
corporation. And what about the growing number of temporary
employees? They're workers. And yes, the monster under the bed. It's
called automation and likely to grow.

The not-so-secret
observation is that probably a majority of these “lost” jobs are
never going to come back, here or from anywhere else, with or without
Bernie Sanders, or the return of Malcolm X or Leon Trotsky.

Susan Sarandon, the well
known actress, said a few months back that a Donald Trump presidency
would likely speed up the “revolution.” Yes, we workers will all
unite and storm the Winter Palace. We could though most definitely
get noticeable change, but it will not be the kind that we want, and
the majority of us will not be able to ride out the storm on the
island of Majorca.

It's so hard and unfair

Yes, yes we did not get
Bernie, we don't like Hillary, even though she's not remotely the
devil incarnate that our 21st century Jay Goulds want
Americans to believe. And once again the so-called white working
class is mad because they've been duped and manipulated for, er ...
well ... since the beginning of our republic, but Trump tells it like
it is, and what about and so forth … imagine not standing for the
National Anthem … what's climate change....

The original Populists got
it right in the beginning: they knew it was about fearlessness,
organizing and an education campaign, which was a full-time job with
dignity. It's unfortunate we're having difficulty understanding this
in 2016.

Monday, September 05, 2016

Tug on anything at all and
you'll find it connected to everything else in the universe.

(John Muir,
environmentalist, preservationist and known in the U.S. as the
“Father of the National Parks,” 1838-1914)

In the beginning

At the present time, with
7.2 billion self-absorbed humans wandering around on the Earth, we're
probably at least 4 billion over the carrying capacity of the planet
to support all life, sustain itself and insure a viable ecosystem.
Simply put, our technology has easily outstripped our evolutionary
development. We Homo-sapiens have just barely climbed down from the
trees and begun our cautious journey across the savanna.

But as hope springs eternal
in the minds of us humans, there are a few faint signs for cautious
optimism in a handful of locations on the planet. There are
indications that where there is good governance and control of
corruption there is some decrease in environmental pressures. As
well, regions of high urbanization may have positive effects in that
housing and infrastructure needs are not spread across the larger
landscape. This is the good news.

The bad news is that at the
present time more than 70 percent of Earth's eco-regions have shown a
large increase in their human footprint. For those interested in some
of the specifics a good place to begin is a study in NatureCommunications.

Being anything you want to
be

Of course it's in the realm
of possibility that a Silicon Valley billionaire will come up with a
product to save all of us in the nick of time or some software
engineer in Mumbai, India will create the "miracle code or maybe
an obscure scientist in Shanghai, China will transform the primitive
Limbic system in the brain, allowing us to make a “quantum leap”
into the 21st century.

Last but most certainly not
least the Kurzweillian-phantasmagorical-transhuman-cum-cyborg,
brought to us by the futurist Ray Kurzweil, could arrive at the last
possible moment and save the planet.

More than likely, however,
there will be no techno-fix, no Libertarian John Gault galloping in
on his unicorn, and most assuredly no bronze-age invisible sky god
that will make the bad things go away.

This is the way the world
ends.

This is the way the world
ends.

This is the way the world
ends.

Not with a bang but a
whimper.

(From The Hollow Men by
T.S. Eliot)

The world is this way

Excluding the Syrian
apocalypse of course at the present time … well, possibly Somalia,
maybe Sudan, and yes Libya, and how can we forget Iraq … actually
most of the Arab world in general to be fair. Then there is
Afghanistan maybe Pakistan in South and Central Asia, the former
Soviet republics and those island nations sinking beneath the sea
because of rising sea levels, and....

Asia is where the action is
today. In Southeast Asia Indonesia is destroying its rainforests as
fast as possible to create more and more palm oil plantations, the
ingredient that's used by the snack manufacturers and personal care
products and cosmetics, among others. Greed, corruption and human
ignorance make everything that much easier of course—anywhere.

Moving up to Northeast Asia,
Japan's aging population is continuing to practice its cultural
cuisine. It's a sideshow in the global scheme of things but a telling
commentary on humankind. In addition to the hunting of whales for,
er, scientific purposes, there is the annual bloodbath festival that
may have been going on for a thousand years. Dolphins are rounded up
in a cove, the “prettiest” sold to aquariums and the rest clubbed
to death for the meat.

Zhonggou—The Middle
Kingdom

China right now, with its
rapidly increasing economic and military might and strict
authoritarianism, has perhaps become the tarnished gold standard for
much of the world. Its overriding historical imperative, in addition
to the reinvention of some modern day Middle Kingdom, seems to be the
creation of a vast global plantation, sort of an updated 16th
and 17th century European mercantilism. Africa and South
America are its current targets and the ends are sure to justify any
possible means for the billionaire technocrats who run the “peoples
republic.”

One of the grand Chinese
proposals is to build a 3,300 mile-long railway line through the
Amazon rainforest to access soya plantations and mining regions, a
potential environmental disaster of monumental proportions. *

China single-handedly may be
responsible for the extinction of numerous wildlife throughout the
world, perhaps the best known example being the elephant, a keystone
species, hunted for its ivory and other body parts including its feet
that are cut off and used for stools by the wealthy in every sink
hole across the planet.

This is the way the world
ends. But perhaps not.

NEXT: Chasing the carnival
in the U.S., 2016

* Amazon's forests hold
approximately 90-140 tons of carbon, around 9-14 years of current
global, annual human induced carbon emissions.

Thursday, September 01, 2016

Thursday, April 28, 2016

This video with biologist Janine Benyus is worth revisiting periodically in order to inspire and get us to think about how to solve problems no matter how seemingly intractable. While we humans have been around for only about 200,000 years, planet Earth has existed for more than 3 billion years.

Friday, April 22, 2016

It is the monster in the room but we're very, very afraid to talk about it, including all the traditional, well known and well established environmental organizations: Animal agriculture is the primary cause of environmental devastation on this planet and leading us to extinction--period!
Everything else is largely an exercise in denial.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The result of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 in the old Soviet Union was that humans could not live in the region. This is a story of nature without the influence of Homo-sapiens. This film first appeared in 2014.

Monday, March 28, 2016

It is horrifying that we
have to fight our own government to save the environment.

(Ansel Adams)

We cannot win this battle
to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond
between ourselves and nature as well—for we will not fight to save
what we do not love.

(Jay Gould, evolutionary
biologist)

Being that change

I read a recent National
Geographic article (Feb. 2016) about the Denali National Park and
Preserve in Alaska, a preserve of some 6 million acres, a
breathtaking area that is visited by 500,000 people a year. In
additional to the astonishing pictures that the magazine has always
been noted for, the article itself, in my opinion, provides a glimpse
of the land use conflicts, the views of wildlife and the natural
world in general that is occurring throughout the country today.

They come here to snap a
few pictures and get some bragging rights about being 50 feet from a
grizzly. In the course of experiencing this natural drama, something
clicks. They go away wanting to protect places like this.

(Park Superintendent Don
Striker)

Regarding wolf culls and
removal of Denali's buffer zones:It's the state standing up to an
overreaching federal government and libtard environmentalists.

(Coke Wallace, trapper and
hunting guide)

Don't feel like it, not in
the mood

The Washington Post
conducted a survey that attempted to find out why Americans do not
vote. It turned out that the primary reason was because they were “to
busy” or they “lacked” interest. Yeah, they weren't motivated
to vote.

The U.S. Census Bureau
reported that only 41.9 percent of eligible voters voted in the 2014
congressional election, a record low. The percentage of voters
increase during presidential years but is still only about 62
percent. Overall, Americans don't vote. Well, not exactly true. Those
making over $150,000 manage to make the effort and do a little
better. They want their benefits.

It's so hard

Agriculture is probably the
one most environmentally destructive human activity we have
established.

Instead of forcing nature
to give us what we think we want, we ask nature what it is producing
and then turn it in to something valuable and delicious to eat.

(Fred Kirschenmann, farmer
and educator)

The following is a video
worth watching. Even if you live in the middle of a city and have
never seen a real farm, learn about your role in changing our food
system in any way you can.

Not to worry, the climate
changes slowly

Hm-m. Perhaps not. Even the
climatologists were surprised. We just had, globally, the hottest
winter ever. The month of February was really warm and, yes, the
conclusion was that is was primarily caused by humans. But the good
news, sort of, is that the latest Gallup poll determined that 41
percent of Americans now believe global warming will be a “serious
threat” in their lifetimes.

Yes, climate change, it
could mean more rain or less rain for different parts of the planet.
Food supplies could be in jeopardy and don't count on industrial
agriculture to keep your stomachs full. Of course, mosquito-borne
diseases will likely increase, millions of people might attempt to
migrate to other locations in search of food and jobs, and political
instability … beware of political “guarantees.” The
Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization said
recently that, “The future is happening now.”

Improving the numbers

Interview with activist
Tim DeChristophrer

Both facts and passion
required

While these seven articles
have been primarily focused on public lands, their history and
wildlife in America, we could have created a laundry list of issues
the United States will have to face one way or the other, likely
sooner than many of us would like to think about.

The national park idea goes
back to the early decades of the 19th century and some of
its supporters included George Catlin, James Fenimore Cooper, Henry
David Thoreau, Abraham Lincoln, Senator John Conners of California
and many others. Areas were set aside as public lands and to protect
the wildlife in the 19th century, but it was President
Theodore Roosevelt, a man of supreme contradiction regarding the
environment, at the turn of the 20th century, who got
legislation passed to establish a national park system. It is
arguably one of the finest examples of public policy that this
country ever established.

There is a great deal we can
all do; it is not obscure or requires years of specialized training.
The first thing is knowing the basic actual facts and the basic
actual history of public lands in the United States. Then we can
begin to separate the truth from the myths regarding wildlife, along
with all the “freedom” and “liberty” buffoonery that is
uttered. We're now ready to make more and more people understand the
importance of public space and public lands, their value and their
legacy at both the state and national level.

Some people may be able to
demonstrate why a person in Brooklyn, New York ought to care about a
national sanctuary in an isolated corner of Oregon. Or, for that
matter, a hiker in the American Southwest being able to grasp the
importance of clean air in Detroit, Michigan. It's the connections
that have to be established across the entire country to diverse
groups of people.

Now we can talk about
political corruption, the ignorance regarding wildlife, and the
outdated mentality that sees nature as a mere commodity, to be bought
and sold and with little regard for the consequences. The last basic
step is that we must find, encourage and support individuals who will
represent us and stand firm in defending public lands and wildlife.
Then we go out and vote at every level all the time.

In 2016 we have an actual
chance to be part of the change, a change that does not exclude nor
destroy nor take a future away. The change is all of us, not some
shining knight appearing over the horizon to make things better.

Additional Information

Knowing your opponents is
important. Ultimately we have to know who they are at the national,
state and local level. The following are some of the key players in
the U.S. House of Representatives. Their goal is to starve public
lands by taking away the funds to maintain them. Their real objective
is to privatize all public lands and turn them over to corporate
interests. Help end the political careers of the following members of
Congress: Rep. Greg Walden, R-OR; Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-UT; Rep.
Scott Tipton, R-CO; Rep. Steve Pearce, R-NM; Rep. Mark Amodei, R-NV;
Rep. Cynthis Lummis, R-WY, Rep. Raul Labrador, R-ID

D. It's called the Wise Use
doctrine (mentioned in “The problem with America is...”) and has
been around for some 30 years. It's anything but “wise.” It is
part and parcel of Libertarian philosophy. The central tenant is that
private ownership is always better than public ownership.

The white terrorists who
occupied the Malheur Refuge claimed that they believed in the Wise
Use doctrine. The livestock industry, oil and gas and various
developers will often profess to be supporters of Wise Use, but it
would not be overly cynical to think that philosophical doctrine is
not what guides many of these bottom feeders.

For the Wise Use true
believer, land is worth only what people will pay for it. If you
can't make a buck in some way it has no value. The private market by
its very nature exists to commodify natural resources and turn them
into consumer goods. Most important, it attempts to externalize
expenses.

By some estimates, if the
world's largest corporations were actually responsible for their
costs of pollution and other damages to the environment, something
like one-third of their profits would disappear. Another study
estimated that the combined world damage to the environment in 2008
was something like $22 trillion!

Land management in the U.S.
is important and in need of intelligent changes and modifications
that reflects a 21st century reality, but the Wise Use
movement is largely another dreary American hustle that has the
stench of the 19th century and the Gilded Age. A number of
years ago I wrote a series of articles about one of America's best
scams, entitled America's Turf Terror (I). Time to put a stake in the
heart of the Wise Use scam.

E. Even though meat
consumption in the United States has decreased, it is increasing in
the developing world because of rising standards of living. It has
been devastating to the planet's rainforests and wildlife.

If one were to take the
agricultural business in general in the U.S., billions of dollars is
subsidies go exclusively to corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, much of
which ends up feeding animals. Western ranchers are one of the
largest recipients of federal welfare programs. Something like $500
million in taxpayer money in 2014 went to ranchers getting
below-market value leases to graze their cattle on public lands.

F. The Ammon Bundy gang that
occupied the Oregon wildlife sanctuary this past January could end up
costing the taxpayers several millions of dollars. These ignorant
thugs, as we've learned, desecrated sacred Native American sites at
Malheur, built roads through Paiute Indian grounds, and trenches dug
adjacent to sacred ground contained human feces. So much for the
professed respect.

Cliven Bundy, the patriarch
of this family, whose ranch in Nevada adjoins thousands of acres of
public lands, allows his cattle to graze wherever they wish. He lets
them run wild until he decides to trap and kill one. He apparently
does not vaccinate or treat his cattle for disease and seemingly does
not manage or control breeding. Yup, we'll let Cliven Bundy be the
poster child for privatization and welfare capitalism.

Oh yes, not discussed is the
progress that could be lost between ranchers and environmentalists
because of the occupation, possible revenue and job losses to the
county and, last, the wildlife itself. The many birds arrive in the
spring to breed. Much work still remains to be done in preparation
for their arrival.

Which way to the Emerald
City

Prohibition in the 1920s was
probably one of the worst examples of public policy that the country
ever implemented. But, like today, America was undergoing huge
changes.

The W.A.S.P. establishment
was losing political power, people were moving to urban areas,
immigrants were becoming citizens, African-Americans were going north
looking for a better life, women had the vote, and a great many
Americans were simply frightened and angry at the speed of these
changes.

A backlash occurred. The
membership of the Ku Klux Klan grew enormously, especially in the
north, religious fundamentalism attempted to push back against
science and evolution and politicians railed against the “other.”
“I want my country back,” and “it's the government's fault”
were heard in the 1920s as well.

Yes, we Americans are mad at the present time,
even if in some cases we can't actually explain who or what we're mad
at. For many Americans, especially a large segment of white America,
there is a sense that they've been duped and manipulated for
generations. Well, they have. So what's the strategy?

Sell a country! Why not
sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth?

Monday, March 07, 2016

Climate change is real. It
is the most urgent threat affecting our species. We need to work
together and stop procrastinating.

(Leonardo DiCaprio, Oscar
winner for best actor, The Revenant, 2016)

Indians and wolves are
both beasts of prey, though they differ in shape.

(George Washington)

To the Great Plains
Indians, nature was the center of our way of life. To whites, nature
was the enemy to be conquered.

(Dr. Leo Killsback,
citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation)

It ultimately matters a hell of a lot,
regardless of whether or not you live in Ferguson, Missouri, rural
Idaho or along the Connecticut “gold coast.” They're all
connected even if for some it's difficult to grasp that connection.
Of course, you don't have to frame it in terms of morality,
stewardship of the Earth or the sacredness of all life on the planet,
if you're uncomfortable or contemptuous with those terms.

One of the really good post-apocalyptic
nightmares is The Road, a novel by Cormac McCarthy. We never really
learn how it happened, how it all became the planet of the damned. If
you are now of a certain age you will likely pass away remembering
blue skies, chirping birds and the possibility of a living future.
Your children, on the other hand, could start seeing both small and
large occurrences. Now your grandchildren, well, do we really care
about them? After all, we're dead.

The short explanation

A. A large number of countries in the
world today have “protected areas.” The number of reserves on
land amount to approximately 161,000. The number over marine waters
globally is around 6,500. In 2015 this represented 15% of the Earth's
land area and 2.8% of the planet's ocean area. Is this enough?

Edward O. Wilson, the renown biologist,
believes it doesn't come close to being enough. In fact, he thinks
one-half of the Earth's surface must be devoted to nature in order to
save the life forms that compose it. One of the life forms is us. No
it doesn't mean that one-half of Earth is to become a global
sanctuary devoid of humans but it does mean that we must learn how to
reduce our ecological footprint. Wilson thinks it is possible and
believes it is through biology, nanotechnology and robotics that we
can learn how.

Large plots of land connected to
smaller plots contain more eco-systems and maintain them at
sustainable levels. Smaller reserves reduce our diversity and thus
our existence. Edward Wilson thinks there are still choices that we
can make, but the crucial factor in the life and death of all species
is the amount of habitable land we can maintain.

B. Although many still refuse to admit
it, more and more of us now understand that we cannot take more out
of the eco-system than we put in. The good news is that we're now
beginning to be able to put a direct cash value on what has been
called “natural capital,” that is what humans do not have to
spend on services that nature supplies for free, such as water
purification, crop pollination, coastal protection by wetlands, sand
banks and reefs and groundwater.

We've heard, for example, about the
importance of the honeybee, which in fact generates some $57 billion
dollars annually in revenue. But few people probably know that the
dung beetle generates some $380 million annually by getting rid of
manure that would attract parasites.

The Ogallala Aquifer located in the
Great Plains, covering some 8 states, is one of the largest aquifers
in the world. Suffice it to say that groundwater depletion is
occurring at faster rates and replenishment rates are relatively
slow. In fact, the Ogallala provides freshwater for about one-fifth
of the wheat, corn, cattle and cotton in the U.S. as well as across
the globe.

Scientists can demonstrate that this
aquifer could run dry as soon as 2040 if we don't make necessary
changes … and we do know right now how to make a lot of these
changes. If we wanted to keep the aquifer from going dry beyond 2070,
we would have to initiate drastic changes, like a steep reduction in
corn and cattle production—heavy users of water. Oh yes, the
political decisions can be put off only so long.

C. What has been referred to as “Big
Data” has helped us to measure Natural Capital. Computers have
accelerated our ability to take action. We are able to measure and
quantify huge amounts of data, discover patterns and understand how
we humans are participants in a larger system. Yes, marketing people
can learn what color boxes toothpaste users like best, but we are now
able to decipher really important things that could help our planet
survive.

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About Me

"We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes--something known only to her and to the mountains." (Aldo Leopold, "Thinking Like a Mountain")
"We are the rich. We own America. We got it, God knows how, but we intend to keep it." (Frederick Townsend Martin, 19th century plutocrat)